Dictionaries used to be drudgery. If you didn't know how to spell a word, you were told to look it up--when it's hard to look up something you can't spell. Looking through a book-type dictionary takes a long time, especially for younger students who are not adept with that sort of thing. Dictionaries online, however, are much easier to look at and the ones that are accessible to teachers and students range widely.
This page includes a number of different resources in/about English as well as dictionaries of common non-English languages such as American Sign Language, Somoli, and Spanish. Remember that on the internet are dictionaries of probably every written language, so you can use these when you get students who are not native speakers of English.
Look at these dictionaries--these barely scratch the surface of dictionaries that are "out there" but they are good examples. Choose one or more dictionaries and describe how it could be used in your classroom.
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Learning Materials
Dictionaries used to be drudgery. If you didn't know how to spell a word, you were told to look it up--when it's hard to look up something you can't spell. Looking through a book-type dictionary takes a long time, especially for younger students who are not adept with that sort of thing. Dictionaries online, however, are much easier to look at and the ones that are accessible to teachers and students range widely.
This page includes a number of different resources in/about English as well as dictionaries of common non-English languages such as American Sign Language, Somoli, and Spanish. Remember that on the internet are dictionaries of probably every written language, so you can use these when you get students who are not native speakers of English.
English Dictionary
English dictionary (also includes a lot of different language dictionaries):http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
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Etymological dictionary of English
http://www.etymonline.com/back to top
Rhyming dictionary
http://www.rhymer.com/back to top
Thesaurus
http://thesaurus.com/Roget-Alpha-Index.htmlback to top
Visual English Dictionary
(a good resource for kids who are learning English)http://visual.merriam-webster.com/
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American Sign Language Dictionary
http://www.lifeprint.com/dictionary.htmback to top
Somoli/English
http://www.freelang.net/online/somali.phpback to top
Spanish/English
http://www.spanishdict.com/back to top
Music Dictionary
http://dictionary.onmusic.orgDiscussion Post
Look at these dictionaries--these barely scratch the surface of dictionaries that are "out there" but they are good examples. Choose one or more dictionaries and describe how it could be used in your classroom.